“On Thursday, January 21, 2016, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will implement a team consisting of two sheriff’s deputies to address homeless issues within all the communities served by the Department. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach Team will begin its regional operation by helping to coordinate the countywide “Point in Time” count occurring next week. In addition, the Department’s Homeless Outreach Team has initiated planning to educate and respond to homeless individuals affected by potential flooding caused by projected El Nino related storms.

Homelessness exists in virtually every community across the nation including Riverside County. Homeless individuals live in all communities of Riverside County including the communities the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department provides law enforcement services to. This includes seventeen of the twenty eight cities within Riverside County as well as all unincorporated communities of the county. According to a recent estimate, there are approximately 1,600 homeless individuals living in Riverside County on any given day.

The Sheriff’s Department’s Homeless Outreach Team will liaison with other law enforcement agencies of the county as well as the Riverside County Continuum of Care Network. The COC Network consists of private and countywide public sector homeless service providers, designed to promote community-wide planning and the strategic use of resources to address homelessness.

Homeless encampment in Temecula. Patch photo.

The newly created Homeless Outreach Team will be tasked with not only identifying homeless individuals throughout Riverside County Sheriff’s Department operational areas, but to help coordinate the delivery of resources available to homeless individuals throughout the entire county including the homeless veteran population.

The team will work alongside members of Riverside County’s Department of Public Social Services (DPSS), to effectively engage homeless individuals coming into contact with law enforcement agencies and the criminal justice system. In addition to identifying those sheltered and unsheltered homeless persons already living within Riverside County, the team will also attempt to identify incarcerated inmates who have a high probability of becoming homeless upon their release to ensure those individuals become less likely to repeat a cycle of crime or violence while being homeless.

In addition, the Sheriff’s Department Homeless Outreach Team will perform the following tasks:

Contact all homeless individuals about upcoming Magnet events. Magnet events are designed to maximize the delivery of outreach services to homeless individuals living in encampments at a one day event. Multiple service providers come together to affected areas so that outreach services may be made available to homeless individuals without the need for travel.